As mentioned before, Emilia-Romagna is known for its fresh pasta and dairy products. Fettuccine-like tagliatelle is frequently served with Bolognese ragu, which is never served with spaghetti. Wider pasta strands hold the sauce better. Tagliatelle can also be baked with cheese, as it is here. In this case, the two cheeses are Emilia-Romagna’s native parmesan, as well as fontina. More dairy is supplied by butter and cream.
Parmesan and fontina are both cow’s milk cheeses, which predominate in northern Italy. Here, the cheese is front and center. The only contrast comes from breadcrumbs lining the baking dish and a mix of scallions and parsley minced together. Interestingly, instead of sprinkling the breadcrumbs over the top, the baking pan is buttered, coated in a layer of crumbs, then a layer of egg, then another layer of crumbs. After baking, the whole pan is inverted onto a serving platter.
I had an issue with the crumb layer sticking to the pan. It was easy to peel off, but the presentation wasn’t as pretty as it could be. And the texture wasn’t what I expected. It was more of an eggy film than the crisp crust I anticipated. Maybe it was supposed to be this way, maybe the extra egg I added because one didn’t fully coat the pan affected the texture. It was good, but in the future, I would just sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top. It’s easier and ensures that they stay crisp.
This dish reminded me of alfredo pasta, but lighter and with a stronger flavor. The scallions and parsley added a pleasant fresh contrast, and a salad would balance things out nicely. So would a cooked vegetable like green beans, and/or a bowl of fruit for dessert.
Menu: Lasagna Baked with Meat Sauce, Bologna-Style (also mentioned in 1000 Foods)
Let’s revisit ragu. In a previous menu, I discussed the Neapolitan/southern style, where tomatoes play a central role. In Bolognese/northern style ragu, the meat predominates, while the tomatoes are just a flavoring. The meat is ground, rather than in big pieces, and is eaten in the sauce with the pasta, rather than as a separate course. Bologna-style ragu is frequently eaten with tagliatelle (but not spaghetti), as well as in lasagna.
Advertisements
Different types of lasagna are eaten all across Italy and have spread around the world. The type most familiar in the US features dried pasta, tomato sauce, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, and usually ground beef or sausage. In the Naples region, recipes sometimes include slices of meatballs and hard-boiled eggs. In Bologna, fresh pasta, tinted green with spinach, Bolognese ragu, and bechamel sauce are used. Grated parmesan is the only cheese.
Side view, showing the layers
I didn’t have fresh spinach pasta or the time to make it, so I used store-bought fresh pasta sheets, pre-cooked before layering in the dish. Since the pasta and both sauces are already cooked, the lasagna only needs to be baked until it’s heated through and the parmesan is browned. With more meat, less tomato, and bechamel in place of most of the cheese, it was a tasty change of pace from my usual “Midwest potluck” recipe.
That said, I still prefer the Italian-American “red sauce” version. The pasta has more of an “al dente” texture, and having two cheeses is better than having just one. It does take at least an hour to bake, but this isn’t active time. But that’s just my personal preference, and the Bologna variation was good. And like all varieties of lasagna, it reheats well. The leftovers provided several enjoyable lunches.
If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to get new contents by email! It’s free, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Menu: Cured Meats and Pickled Vegetables, Tagliatelle with Buttery Tomato Sauce, Salad with Herb Dressing, Pears Baked in “Wine” with Mascarpone
Recommended Wine: Sparkling Lambrusco or Lambrusca di Sobara
In Parma, as in the rest of Emilia-Romagna, fresh egg pasta is a specialty. As mentioned in a previous post, eggs used to be a bit of a luxury. While the common people couldn’t eat them in pasta on a daily basis, it was more affordable in historically richer Emilia-Romagna than in much of the South, where poverty and social inequality were more extreme. Thus, fresh pasta, made with eggs and often stuffed, is associated with Northern Italy, while dried, eggless pasta is more common in Southern Italy. This menu includes not only a fresh pasta, but other regional specialties like Parma ham, mortadella, a buttery sauce, orchard fruit, and cow’s milk cheese.
The first course is a selection of preserved items, an essential part of the diet in the days before refrigeration. Salting, drying, and pickling are all featured here. For thousands of years, people have salted and air-dried meats, especially pork, all over Italy. The variety of hams and sausages are endless, and in Emilia-Romagna, the most famous are prosciutto ham and mortadella, a lightly-spiced sausage often studded with pistachios. Vegetables are often preserved in vinegar, which tends to be plentiful in areas with a lot of wine production. Salt and vinegar both inhibit bacterial growth, while drying removes the water that bacteria need to survive.
I had some trouble finding mortadella. The closest thing I could find was ring bologna, which while based on the original and probably of very good quality was not quite the same. I ended up replacing the mortadella with mozzarella cheese, which was a nice contrast to the stronger-flavored prosciutto and pickled vegetables.
Normally, tomato-based sauces are bright and zesty while white sauces are rich, but this sauce bridged the gap in a remarkable way. Flavored with onion, carrot, and a lot of butter, it’s filling but not heavy and has a nice depth of flavor. With a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and parsley, this dish is simple and delicious, with an interesting history. Pasta has been eaten with butter and parmesan cheese since at least the Renaissance, but at that time adding sugar and spices was as common as adding herbs like parsley or basil. Heavy spices and sugar became less popular in the 16th and 17th Centuries, but tomato sauce did not become popular until the late 18th or early 19th Century. All of this means that until about 200 years ago, this seemingly classic dish would not have been found.
The salad was better than I expected. Even though I don’t usually like anything with a strong licorice flavor (like fennel), here it’s sweetness and aroma balanced the bitter chicory and sour dressing really well. In fact, given how bitter and sour the mix was, it probably could have used more fennel. Another option would be to add in another green with the chicory and dilute the lemon juice a bit.
Whether raw or cooked, pears have been a dessert favorite for over 2000 years. The Ancient Romans ate them plain or baked them in a sort of custard. Baking or stewing them in wine with spices has been common since the Middle Ages. Here, they are baked with white wine, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves, then served with a bit of mascarpone cheese. The recipe calls for white wine to keep the color from “competing with the mascarpone” (Text, pg. 165). That wasn’t an option here, since I wanted a non-alcoholic dish and red grape juice was easier to find. And personally, I think the red exterior and beige interior, with a little bit of white cheese in the center, is just so pretty. The pears tasted as good as they looked, though I must admit that I liked the dessert even better when replacing the mascarpone with a scoop of ice cream. Still, the fabled cuisine of Emilia-Romagna didn’t disappoint.
Feasting Through Time 